Vibration controlled valve and system



United States Patent [72] Inventor Donald E- Hanson 2,962,002 1 1/1960Hayner 251/30X 825 Burnett Ave. Apt. 12, San Francisco, 3,071,154 1/1963Cargill et a1. 251/129X Calif. 94131 3,265,350 8/1966 Yount et a1.251/30 [21] Appl. No. 808,476 3,266,513 8/1966 Voit, Jr 251/129X [22]Filed Mar. 19, 1969 3,372,899 3/1968 McPherson 25l/30X [45 1 Patented221970 Primary Examiner-Samuel Scott Attorney-Gregg & Hendricson [54]VIBRATION CONTROLLED VALVE AND SYSTEM 6 Chums 4 Drawing f ABSTRACT: Acontrol system for valves connected to a com- [52] US. Cl. 251/30, monheader in i vibration responsive valve actuator is 137/815 associatedwith each valve and communicates with the header. CL F16k31/10 A controlunit connected to the header includes a vibration of Search generatorestablishing selected fre uency vibration of in the header to resonantlyenergize selected actuators for operation of the valves associatedtherewith. The actuator includes [56] References C'ted a metallicvibration-responsive element having a predeter- UNITED STATES PATENTSmined resonant frequency mounted in a magnetic field and 2,393,427 l/1946 Sparrow 251/30 the actuator may be physically embodied in the valvestruc- 2,635,635 4/1953 Eimermann 251/30 ture or disposed adjacent andconnected to the valve.

VIBRATION CONTROLLED VALVE AND SYSTEM BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Manydevelopments have been made in the field of remote valve control and ithas become quite common to employ pilot valves, for example, forcontrollably operating larger valves. Particularly in complex pipingsystems it is advantageous to be able to controllably operateselectedvalves from a central location and one conventional system ofthis type applicable with airflow systems employs a plurality of smallair valves at the central location with the output of each extending toan associated main valve for controlled operation of the latter. Themain valves in such a system would direct flow of the fluid from aheader to the operating equipment in the system, such as a piston or airmotor, for example. This system, which is widely employed, has thedisadvantage of requiring about as much piping for valve control as isemployed in the main lines of the system. Other remote control valvesystems generally suffer from similar drawbacks particularly in the areaof complexity of the systems.

It is provided by the present invention that the regular piping of asystem having valves therein shall be employed as the conduit fortransmittal of control signals to the separate valves. This thenmaterially reduces the complexity and costs of multiple valve remotecontrol systems, and at the same time enhances the reliability thereof.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION The present invention provides a new valve controland system employing same. In general the invention may be summarized ascomprising control means adapted to communicate with a header of apiping system and having a vibration generator such as an audiooscillator controllably operable at a plurality of differentpredetermined frequencies. This control means selectively generates apredetermined frequency of vibrations and transmits such vibrationsthrough fluid in the header or pipe to each of a plurality of valvesconnected at various locations to said header or pipe. Each of thevalves is operated by an actuator including a vibration-responsiveelement communicating with the valve passage or header and meansestablishing a magnetic field within which such element is disposed. Theelement may be formed internally of the valve body or disposed adjacentsame as long as it does communicate freely with the valve passage or apipe adjacent same so that vibrations transmitted through the fluid arereceived by the element.

The vibration-responsive element'of each valve actuator has apredetermined different and nonharmonic resonant frequency. Bytransmitting vibrations form the control means at a frequency which isthe resonant frequency of a particular predetermined actuator, thevibration-responsive element of such actuator will then .be vibrated inthe magnetic field to generate an electric current which in turn isemployed to control or operate valve actuating means so as to move themovable member of the valve. It will be appreciated that vibrationsgenerated at the control means are transmitted to thevibration-responsive elements of each valve actuator connected to theheader, only the valve actuator having the resonant frequency of theelement thereof substantially equal to the frequency of transmittedvibrations will have the element materially moved in its magnetic fieldto generate a sufiicient current for actuating the associated valve. Inorder to prevent inadvertent valve actuation it is also necessary toensure that the resonant frequency of each vibration-responsive elementis neither the same as nor a harmonic of the resonant frequency of anyother such element in the system.

The invention is described below with reference to an air system and airvalves however, it is to be app eciated that this invention is equallyapplicable'for any type of valve system wherein a material is to becontrollably passed by valving means. The term "fluid is herein employedas defining the material that may pass through the system and isintended to encompass liquids, gasses, slurries, and in fact, any typeof flowable material. It is further noted with respect to theillustrated and described embodiment of the present invention thatalthough a specific main and pilot valve structure is shown however, theinvention is equally applicable with a wide variety of diiferent typesof main valves and pilot valves.

DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES The present invention is illustrated with respectto preferred embodiments thereof in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a piping system as may becontrolled by the present invention and. including a showing in dottedlines of a prior art control system;

FIG. 2 is a schematic central sectionalview through a vibration controlvalve in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a remote control unit as may beemployed in the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a portion of a valve controlsystem in accordance with the present invention and incorporatingseparated valves and actuators.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring first to FIG. 1 therewill be seen to be schematically illustrated a portion of a pipingsystem including a main line or header 11 which may extend from sometype of air supply, for example, to a plurality of valves 12, separatelyconnected to this header by branch lines 13. The branches, with eachhaving a valve therein, may lead to separate portions of the overallsystem which are to be selectively connected to the header. While it isclearly possible to manually operate individual valves of the system, itis more conventional to provide some type of pilot control to morereadily and rapidly operate the valves. This in itself is quiteconventional. Additionally it is common to provide remote control foroperating or actuating the valves of the system, particularly incircumstances where any substantial number of valves may be involved andthey may be located at rather widely spaced points. One common manner ofproviding this remote control is illustrated in FIG. 1 by dashed lines.Such a system may include a plurality of small control valves 14connected from a common branch line 16 of the header and having outputlines extending to separate main valves 12. These control valves may bequite small and located at a single remote control position so that theyare readily operated from a single location. The individual controlvalves 14 operate as separate pilot valves for the main valves 12, asfor example by applying or removing pressure upon a spring-loaded pistonactuating a movable member of the main valve.

A remote control system employing remotely located control of pilotvalves, as briefly identified above, certainly accomplishes theobjective of remote operation of the main valves. It does, however, havethe disadvantage of requiring a considerable amount of control piping,as illustrated by the control lines 17 extending from the control valves14 to the main valves 12. The present invention on the other handprovides a single control unit 21 connected by a single pipe 22 to themain line or header 1] and located at a desired control position. Noother piping is required and thus the present invention precludes thenecessity of employing all of the piping 17 of FIG. 1. The control unit21 operates to selectively generate vibrations which are transmittedthrough fluid contained in the main line or header 11 through the branchlines 13 to separate valves 12. These valves 12, in accordance with thepresent invention, are each provided with actuators having selectivevibration-responsive means for actuation of same.

Considering now the improved valve and valve actuation of the presentinvention, reference is made to FIG. 2 wherein there is schematicallyillustrated elements of a valve in accordance herewith. It isparticularly noted that no attempt is made in FIG. 2 to show anoptimized valve design but instead the FIG. is intended only toillustrate the invention. In general the valve 12 includes a valve body31 having a main passage 32 therethrough with a gate or other movablevalve means 33 disposed in the body for movement into and out of closingrelationship to this passage 32. In the following description the valveclosing and opening element is termed the movable valve element for itis'to be appreciated that it may be a gate, ball, cylinder or any of thevarious types of means employed in a valve to close and open same. Thisparticular embodiment illustrates a gate element 33 which will be seento have a stem 34 extending therefrom to a spring-loaded piston 36. Thispiston is disposed in a cylinder 37 which may be located within orwithout the valve body and which contains a compression spring 38between the piston and cylinder end as shown. This spring 38 will thusbe seen to urge the piston to the left for closing the valve passage bydisposing the gate 33 across same.

In order to provide for opening of the valve 12, this embodimentprovides a pilot valve 41 which may, for example, be formed or locatedwithin the valve body. In the illustrated embodiment this pilot valve 41is provided with a movable valve element 42, illustrated as a gate thatis operated by a solenoid 43. The valve 12 is also provided withauxiliary or pilot valve inlet and outlet passages or lines 44 and 46respectively. The inlet line extends from the main line valve passage 32to the cylinder 37 on the opposite side of the piston 36 from the spring38. The outlet line 46 extends from this same portion of the cylinder tothe atmosphere or some low-pressure return line. Again it is noted thatthe valve and system illustrated may be operable upon air and in thisinstance the outlet line 46 is merely an exhaust line to the atmosphere.The pilot valve 41 has the gate 42 thereof movable between closingrelation to either the inlet or outline lines 44 and 46. Thus, as willbe seen Q from FIG. 2, the pilot valve gate 42 is disposed in closingrelation to the inlet line 44 to leave the exhaust line 46 open or ismoved by the solenoid to open the inlet line 44 and close the 5, exhaustline 46.

From the above description of relatively conventional valve componentsit will be seen that the movable member or gate position with respect tothe inlet line 44 and closed position with respect to the exhaust line46, air pressure will be applied to the piston 36 to compress spring 38and withdraw the main gate 33 from the valve passage. Deenergization ofthe solenoid 43 causes movement of the pilot valve gate 42 out of theexhaust passage 46 and into the inlet passage 44. It is to be noted thatthe solenoid 43 is spring loaded by the spring 47, so as to normallyurge the pilot valve gate 42 into closing relation to the inlet line 44thereby exhausting the vmain chamber of cylinder 37. Consequentlydeenergization of the solenoid 43 results in the pilot valve closing theinlet line 44 and opening the exhaust line 46 so that the piston 36 ismoved to the left by -spring pressure 38 to close the main valve. Thepresent invention provides for vibration control of the valve describedabove and illustrated in FIG. 2. This vibration control is accomplishedby an actuator 50 which is illustrated as comprising a thin metallicreed or diaphragm or the like 51 mounted in communication with the mainvalve passage 32, as for example in a recess 52 in the valve body. Theelement 51 is mounted by an insulator 53 to extend into communicationwith fluid passing through the valve so as to thereby be subjected tovibrations of such fluid. A magnet 54 is shown to be provided in thisrecess 52 to establish a magnetic field into which the element 51extends. As shown, the element 51 extends between the pole pieces of themagnet so as to be generally aligned with the lines of force of themagnetic field and thus it will be appreciated that upon substantialvibration of the element 51 acting as a conductor in the magnetic fieldthere will be induced a current in such element. An electrical conductor57 extends from the element 51 to an amplifier 58 which amplifies thesignal generated by the vibrating element and applies such signal eitherdirectly or indirectly to the solenoid 43 for energizing same. In thedrawings a power supply 59 is shown to be provided for operating theamplifier 58 and in practice this may comprise only a connection to aconventional power outlet. The amplifier may also include a switchoperated by the input signal to apply power supply voltage to thesolenoid. 1 1

With regard to the electrical portion of the valve 12 it is again notedthat only schematic illustration is included in the showing. It isbelieved apparent that various configurations of vibration-responsiveelements and mountings therefor are possible as well as whollyalternativei electrical circuitry associated therewith. For example itis possible to employ the output of the vibrating element in a magneticfield as a control signal for a relay applying energization to asolenoid. Also it is possible for the main valve to be-solenoidoperatedwithout employing a pilot valve by using the signalfrom the element 51to control energization of a main valve solenoid.

An additional element of the valve control system of the presentinvention comprises the control unit 21, as shown in FIG. 3. This unitis, as stated above, connected to the header or main line 11 as by apipe 22. The control unit may actually be very simply comprised, forexample, by an audio oscillator 61 having a plurality of predetermineddifferent nonharmonic operating frequencies and having the outputthereof coupled as by means of a diaphragm 62 to the fluid in the pipe11. The output of the audio oscillator may be controlled by a panel 63of switches, buttons or the like 64 to establish or control thefrequency of oscillator output. The predetermined output frequencies ofthe oscillator 61 are set to equal or substantially equal the differentresonant frequencies of the separate vibration-responsive elements ofseparate valves 12 in the system.

Thus operating the first button or, switch of the panel 63 of thecontrol unit may, for example, cause the oscillator 61 to generate asignal of substantially the same frequency as the first valve 12 of thesystem of FIG. 1 and to propagate vibrations of this frequency throughthe fluid of the system by means'of the output diaphragm 62 of theoscillator. This particular frequency will, of course, be received byand will operate upon each of the vibration responsive elements of theseparate actuators, however, only one of these elements will be vibratedat the resonant frequency thereof. Consequently, such element willvibrate with a much greater amplitude than any other and willconsequently produce a signal of more substantial amplitude. If desiredthe amplifier 58 may incorporate a threshold limiter so that no outputwill be produced for input signals below a predetermined level.Consequently, vibrations of resonant elements that are substantiallyless than the resonant frequency thereof will not cause an electricalsignal to be passed to the solenoid for operating the pilot valve.

Although the embodiment of the present invention described aboveincorporates a main valve, pilot valve and actuator in a single valvebody, such is clearly not necessary. In FIG. 4 there is shown part of analternative arrangement in which the pilot valve and actuator areseparated from the main valve. Referring briefly to FIG. 4 whereinpreviously described elements are similarily numbered the pilot valve 41is shown to be located adjacent the main valve 12 and connected theretoby a short pipe 71. The pilot valve 41 is also connected to the' header11 by a short pipe or conduit 72. The actuator 50 communicates with thisconduit 72 and may be incorporated in the pilot valve body or separatetherefrom. It is herein considered that the actuator 50 includes anamplifier and is connected to and operates the pilot valve withappropriate power supply connections. The same control unit 21 isemployed and in fact the system is actually the same as described abovebut for physical separation of valves and actuator.

Although the description of operation of the present invention has beenincorporated with the description of possible structure thereof it isagain briefly noted that the control system of this inventionincorporates a control unit 21 connected to a main pipe or header 11 ofa piping system and that such control unit may be positioned at anydesired location. This control unit contains a vibration generatoroperable at a number of predetermined selected frequencies forgenerating and transmitting vibrations through fluid carried within thepiping system controlled by the invention. The individual valves of thissystem connected to the aforementioned header or main pipe are operatedby an associated actuator having a vibration-responsive elementcommunicating with fluid in the header. This vibration-responsiveelement is illustrated to be embodied as a metallic reed or diaphragmfixedly mounted in communication with the header, a main valve passage,or the pipe leading thereto so as to be subjected-to vibrations of fluidtherein as generated by the control unit. The vibration control unit oractuator for each valve has a predetermined resonant frequencysubstantially equal to one of the output frequencies of the controlunit. When the fluid is vibrated at the resonant frequency of avibration-responsive element of a valve actuator, such element thenresonantly vibrates in response thereto. The element is disposed in amagnetic field which may be formed by a permanent magnet, 'or anelectromagnet if desired. Resonant vibration of the element in responseto fluid vibrations causes this electrically conducting element to movein a magnetic field and thereby generate a current which is employed,preferably through an amplifier, to actuate a solenoid for controllingpilot valve position, which in turn then operates or actuates the mainvalve to open or close same.

Each of the valves to be controlled by the system hereof has associatedtherewith an actuator containing a vibrationresponsive element and eachof such elements has a resonant frequency which is different fromtheresonant frequency of the others and is not a harmonic thereof. Thusonly a single valve is operated at a time by generation of a particularpredetermined frequency of vibration of fluid at the control unit. It isto be appreciated that these vibrations are very readily transmitted byfluid in piping, substantially whatever type of fluid may be employed.Thus the invention employs the regular piping or conduits of the systemto be controlled and precludes the necessity of auxiliary or controlpiping, as is required in the prior art system generally indicated inFIG. 1, for example. Provision may also be made for the oscillator ofthe control unit to simultaneously produce outputs of more than onefrequency under those circumstances wherein it is desired to open morethan one valve at a time. In this respect it is possible to employ morethan .one output vibrator of the oscillator but in general systems ofthis type are called upon to operate but a single valve at a time. It isof course inherent in design of a system employing the present inventionthat the resonant frequencies of the vibration-responsive element andthus the output frequencies of the control unit shall be chosen so asnot to conflict with any other types of vibrations that may FIG. 2, forexample, is preferably modified to conform to acceptable valve designconsiderations. Reference is thus made to the appended claims for aprecise delineation of the scope of this invention.

Iclaim:

1. A vibration-controlled valve having a main movable elementcontrollably movable between closing and opening relation to a valvepassage comprising an actuator including a metalic vibration-responsiveelement mounted in communication with said valve passage, meansestablishing a magnetic field passing through said element wherebysubstantial element vibration induces an appreciable electric currenttherein, and means electrically connected to said element for actuationby said current to move said movable valve element.

2. The valve of claim 1 further defined by said element having apredetermined resonant frequency and being firmly anchored forsubstantial vibration in said magnetic field upon subjection tovibrations of fluid in said valve passage at said resonant frequency.

3. The valve of claim 1 further defined by said means electricallyconnected to said element including an am lifier and a solenoid operatedin response to the outpu thereo for actuating said movable valve member.

- 4. The valve of claim 1 further defined by said main movable elementhaving a stern connected to a spring-loaded piston in a cylinder, asolenoid operated pilot valve having a movable member opening andclosing inlet and exhaust passages to said cylinder, and said meanselectrically connected to said element producing an output controllingenergization of said solenoid.

5. A remote control system for at least one valve adapted tocontrollably pass fluid through a pipe comprising:

a. a valve actuator for each valve and including a vibration responsiveelement communicating with said pipe and having a predetermined resonantvibration frequency;

b. means establishing a magnetic field through each element of (a) forgenerating current upon resonant element vibration in said magneticfield;

c. operating means coupled to said element and responsive to the currenttherein for actuating said valve; and

d. control means communicating with said pipe and including a vibrationgenerator operable at least at the resonant frequency of said elementfor transmitting vibrations through fluid in said pipe to actuate saidvalve.

6. The valve control system of claim 5 further defined by said controlmeans comprising an audio oscillator having a plurality of differentfixed frequency outputs corresponding to resonant frequencies ofseparate vibration-responsive elements with means coupling said outputsto fluid in said pipe, and selection means coupled to said'oscillatorfor selection of separate output frequencies to actuate selected valves.

